NTA rejects CUET-PG irregularity allegations as AISA stages protests across Delhi

As student protests over alleged examination irregularities gathered momentum in Delhi, the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday (June 13) rejected claims of unfairness in the Common University Entrance Test for Postgraduate programmes (CUET-PG), asserting that a small group of candidates who missed their exams due to exceptional circumstances were assessed under the same criteria as all other students.

In a statement posted on X, the NTA said that 565 candidates across 28 subjects were unable to appear for their examinations on the originally scheduled dates in March 2026 because of circumstances "entirely beyond their control", including law-and-order disruptions in Tura, Meghalaya, and security concerns at certain overseas examination centres.

The clarification came after the All India Students' Association (AISA) alleged irregularities in the conduct of the CUET-PG examinations and questioned the transparency of the examination process. Addressing concerns over the rescheduled examinations, the NTA said there had been no deviation in the evaluation process.

"For CUET (PG), NTA's policy is to report absolute marks for every candidate, in every subject. No candidate's score is normalized, not in the main examination, not in the reschedule. There was therefore nothing the rescheduled candidates were exempted from; they were scored on exactly the same basis as everyone else," the agency said.

The controversy comes at a time when the NTA is facing heightened scrutiny over allegations of examination irregularities, including those linked to the alleged NEET paper leak case and other concerns raised about national-level entrance tests.

Meanwhile, AISA members staged protests at multiple locations across Delhi, including Delhi University's North Campus, Kamla Nagar, Patel Chest, Gurmandi and Vijaynagar, as part of a week-long outreach campaign highlighting what the organisation described as growing unaccountability in the education sector. According to a PTI report, protesters wore cockroach masks and raised slogans demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the dismantling of the NTA and the withdrawal of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

AISA said students and local residents participated in the demonstrations, during which activists highlighted concerns over examination management, alleged paper leaks and the functioning of the NTA. In a statement, AISA's Delhi University Secretary Anjali said alleged irregularities in examinations such as NEET-UG and CUET had adversely affected students and called for greater accountability in the education system.